HB Fuller has broken ground on a new technical centre to be constructed at the company’s site in Lüneburg, Germany – acknowledged as a global centre of excellence for the production and development of hotmelt adhesives vital to the nonwoven hygienic disposables industry.

The new complex will be made up of three sections, covering an area of 2,300 square metres housing  offices, development laboratories, meeting rooms and a customer centre in which tests, demonstrations and training will be conducted using the very latest equipment.

It is anticipated that the building will be completed in late summer, 2014.

“This investment will provide our R&D professionals and applications experts with an evironment in which they can be at their most creative, and ensure that they have the tools and equipment they need to work collaboratively together with customers and strategic partners,” said senior VP Steve Kenny.

The expansion forms part of a wider business transformation project designed to streamline and modernise operations throughout the Europe and Middle East.

In agreement with various regional and national nature protection organisations and the city of Lüneburg, the company Fuller committed to rehabilitate almost 9,000 square metres of the city’s forestland in Bömsholz, to install a number of breeding and nesting boxes in the area around the plant, and to build a three-metre wide stone wall on a surface, which was previously sealed with concrete, to create a habitat for fence lizards.

Local politicians have welcomed the investment in increased production capacity and the modernisation of the site as a real benefit to the local community. It is anticipated that a number of new jobs will be created as a result.